Is it usual for an acquiring company to give an exploding offer with a timescale of days (in the US)? Especially considering a $200M acquisition will have taken (and may continue to take) many months to complete .
I'm completely speculating here, but I imagine that Zynga didn't really care too much one way or the other if this guy took the job or not. Assuming that they're probably primarily interested in Draw Something, and given that this guy didn't work on Draw Something, then this guy is just another random programmer as far a Zynga is concerned. Had he been the inventor and lead designer of Draw Something they probably would have been more open to negotiation.
In my own limited experience, as well as what I've heard elsewhere, yes. I've never really gotten a good answer as to why, so my guess is that some M&A playbook somewhere says that giving people less time will make them less likely to try and negotiate.
I have a feeling this is more common when a big company buys a small one, and/or when it's not an explicit talent acquisition.
They can also piggyback and associate themselves on Draw Something's success, and promote it amongst their own users - which they may have seen their some of their userbase switching over to Draw Something, a game they didn't own or control. What's the value of losing that mindshare? I guess potentially $200+ million.
